How to recover from a forgotten bittering addition

[mike_hifi]

I am remaking my "Dismal TTL Clone" http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... =11&t=9227 and have pretty much made the same mistake again: I have forgotten to add enough hops at bittering stage! I was short of Fuggles, so subbed in some Northern Brewer that I had. Or at least I was supposed to ... Have just pitched yeast and while tidying up discovered my un-added NB

Can I recover from this? I need to get about 17 IBU's added to a 23l batch.

Help!

Mike

[Iron-Haggis]

Do you have 2 fermenters? If so, leave it for a week. Then next weekend do a mini boil. Maybe just steep some crystal malt and then boil up the liquor with the hops you have left over in a small boil. Put this in the other fermenter, let it cool and then rack your main brew on top. I don't have figures because I don't know how much hops you have and am too lazy (In the middle of exams for maths, don't want to do it in my down time).

Someone else may have a better way, but this could work.

[mike_hifi]

Have just been playing in Beersmith - If I put 250g LDME in 2 litres of water with 20g of Northern Brewer for 60 mins and have a 'Batch Size' of 25 litres (my original 23l + new 2l), this gives me IBU of 18 or so.

I might try and pitch this tomorrow night, so that the yeast can have a go at mixing it in ....

[Ross]

...or you can add some isohop to taste.

cheers Ross

[corks]

i'm interested to see how this works out, i can see myself making the same mistake one day.
just today i almost strained my mini-mash into the sink instead of the kettle. sigh...

[mike_hifi]

Right. I did up a mini batch last night as described. 250g LDME, 21g NB, 2 litre boil for 60 mins.

Strangely, when I tried to use Beersmith to incorporate the new batch with the old, the IBU's didn't addup. The original recipes (sans NB) came up as 17.4 IBU, the new batch as 18 so that should equal about 35 right?

Not according to Beersmith: the new, 25 litre batch is about 32 IBU ....

Anyway, I'll taste at rack time and report back then.

Mike

[mike_hifi]

I've now tasted this brew and I think the bittering addition has worked out OK. Unfortunately I'm missing a fair chunk of flavour and aroma from this beer.

I think the problem is that while you can use Beersmith to calculate IBU fairly well for partial boils, the flavour and aroma aspects are also compromised by a higher gravity boil. While I try to reduce the gravity towards expected SG, there are plenty of fermentables that need a boil for sterility reasons, which means your hop utilisation is compromised.

Oh well, might have to do it the old fashioned way - just add more hops next time (at 20 mins) and see how it goes.

Mike